Running, barfing and writing

A post with running in it! Despite committing myself to writing 50,000 words this month I've managed to devise a kind of plan to move this running malarky up a gear. Thanks to the helpful comments of my nearest and dearest (and the RW forum) that I 'need to run faster' I've added speed sessions to my training. Even just writing that makes me feel more like a runner!

Basically I jog a mile as a warm up then run 1 minute as fast as my legs and lungs will allow. Once I've got my breath back I repeat the fast 1 min. I repeat the previous sequence until barfing point and then attempt another jogged mile before collapsing in the car. I'm hoping to be able to repeat more than 3 times before reaching barfing point very soon!

Number of words written so far? Just over 2000. But I've got my plot written out and each chapter is planned. Just need the time to actually to write.

One week to go

With only a week to go there are 4 aspiring novel writers signed up. Me, the Subversive Runner, Davie the Polis and Corned Beef. I know of one more who is thinking about it and one who reckons he could write a novel no problem "if he really wanted to." A quick read round some of the WHW blogs tells me there are a lot of articulate runners out there. If you can spend hours/days writing up a race report you can easily write something resembling a novel.

Go on. You know you want to.

A literary race

I have once again signed up to the madness that is NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month. Although technically it's international now but I believe it started out as a small venture.

All you have to do is write a novel of 50,000 words from scratch during the 30 days of November. You don't need to edit or rewrite or even produce a publishable piece of work. You just write. The idea behind it is that we can all write a novel but fear of failure or procrastination stops us. No one will ever read it (unless you want them to) as you submit your scrambled novel electronically to robotic word counters who verify your word count. It's all about quantity, not quality.

If you achieve the 50,000 words you get a certificate and a web badge. That's all. But if you discover there's something half decent in your writing you can go on to edit and rewrite it. Who knows, you might end up with something worth publishing. If you go to the website www.nanowrimo.org you can find out more. Click on the 'About' tab. Some people go on to publish their novel.

This is my third attempt. Just to make it interesting this year I've challenged a certain Pirate to join me. The first to reach 50,000 words is the winner.

Anyone else out there care to join us? Might be a good way let all those tired out bodies have a wee rest from hard training. It's only 1700 words per day and you can write about anything you like. Mine is going to be a romance novel. I'll clearly have to do a lot of research!

It's going to be a long day

How to keep yourself occupied when your loved one is 500 miles away running round a track for 24 hours.

1. Don't bother about trying to get a decent sleep. It just won't happen.
2. Get up at the crack of dawn and clean the kitchen. That will take you to 8am.
3. Take the dogs for an extended morning walk.
4. Clean out the fridge.
5. Clean out the cupboard and throw out all the out of date stuff you've been meaning to use but never got round to. Kombu strips and wasabi paste anyone?
6. Wake up children who've had no difficulty sleeping.
7. Bake a batch of brownies.
8. Clean out under the kitchen sink and play guess the fossilised vegetable game.
9. Check your emails and write to 12 local businesses about the school Christmas Fayre.
10. Have lunch
11. Sit on hands and try not to text the Pirate every 5 mins for a progress report.
12. Blog

And it's only 2pm. He's only been running for 2 hours. It's going to be a looooong day.

Dear Mr Waterman,

Bright and early this morning I dropped my husband off at the train station armed with one of his famous 'good' plastic bags and a suitcase filled with enough running gear to kit out all 45 competitors in the upcoming event. He was in reasonable good health apart from a sore shoulder, a bit of a sniffle, suffering from sleep deprivation and moaning about a lack of consistent good nutrition this week. Past experience prevented me from asking about the state of his legs and feet so perhaps you could enquire upon his arrival.

I've provided back up for him on a few occasions and thought some background information might be useful.

He has been known to swear a wee bit if things aren't always just so.

He asks for all sorts of food and drinks but has an uncanny knack of asking for something you don't have, have never heard of and usually when you're miles from any retail outlet.

He likes to think he has a flexible plan but really it's the back up team who has to be flexible.

He has a bit of a cough when running which sounds worse than it is but discreet monitoring is usually effective.

Loo roll and hand wash are a vital piece of his kit.

The night before the race he may be tempted to have 'just one' toast to old friends. He is incapable of 'just one' so abstinence is the best approach. I'm sure his old friend would understand.

I would be grateful if you could return him to me in a reasonable state of health. I would be particularly appreciative if he at least caught the correct flight home.

Many thanks for your help in this matter.

Allybea



PS Seriously guys, huge thanks for doing this xxx

It wasn't a fluke!

I'm feeling very pleased with myself as I ran 3 miles this morning without any walking again! I thought perhaps that last week's race was a fluke and I'd raised my game to achieve my target. But I managed it again despite having not run since last Sunday and having 2 glasses of wine and a wee whisky last night! Ok, it was just as slow as last week but it's really given me a boost that I can improve on this running malarky.

The next distance target is a 10k so maybe I should be looking at a beginner's 10k programme as the complete beginner's one doesn't cover going from running from 14 mins to 40 mins in one fell swoop. Ian helpfully suggested that I need to learn to run faster so I just need to figure out a plan. The non running week was entirely due to not having a plan. Good grief, I'm starting to think like a runner!

Inverness 5k

The first target I set myself when I started running again was to run the Inverness 5k. I wanted to be able to run the whole way without walking. And I did! It took me 41m 37s but I ran every single step. There were loads of kids who set off at 100mph but were walking after 2 mins. There were adults who were running faster than me but slowed to a walk and I passed them again. There were fairies, rabbits and guys in kilts. There were kids with painted faces and women with pink hair. It was brilliant!

Getting that medal at the finish line was amazing. I felt like I actually earned it. It's now hanging beside my NYC marathon medal (2002) and Glasgow 10k (2004).

On the way home I read out a text on Ian's phone because he was driving. It was from Geraldine and it made me cry. But for a good reason. Thanks Geraldine. And thanks to everyone else who sent messages. It's a small but significant step for me and your encouragement is very much appreciated.

I have 2 more targets to aim for now. The first is to be able to go out with the Harriers on their Monday run without holding anyone back. I'm hoping this will happen soon.

The second is to run the Women's 10k next year in an hour. My best time is 66m but it was on the old route and it was years ago when the event first started.

I've no excuses now for not running throughout the winter as I've got some fabulous new Gore running kit courtesy of a certain Family member and his shop at the race. As Ian pointed out I've now got better kit than him to run in.